This mic is really meant to just sit in one place and have broadcasters speak into it. This is Shure's flagship broadcasting and public speaking mic. However, it has been widely adopted into the pro audio world as well for its unique, lively sound. It is a dynamic that connects with XLR, so no phantom power necessary. It comes with a big wind screen, which you will probably want to take off if you are using it for music to allow more of the high frequency detail to come through, but leave on for broadcasting to tone down some of the more nasty plosives. It has two frequency adjustment switches. One is a low-frequency roll-off to help deal with the proximity effect you will definitely be seeing from broadcasters, and the other a is a presence boost that will help intelligibility of speech. For music, this mic can give a very fat sound to vocals. Use this on singers with a very edgy, mid-range type sound and listen to them melt into a fat punchy sound. You will probably want to boost above 8k for lead vocals on your EQ, but everything below that will likely sound great. I also know many people who like to use this on snare drums and toms, and have gotten great results.

OVERALL OPINION

I have only recently been introduced to using this mic in the studio. I tried it on a few other sources other than vocals such as a guitar cabinet and a horn, but nothing really clicked for me except a specific kind of singer. There are just some singers who really will sound trashy through a condenser without the smoothing that they receive through the right dynamic mic, even though you tend to lose some detail and transients. This is definitely a good mic to have in your locker, very much recommended.